President-elect Donald Trump is likely to succeed in efforts to end the long-running war between Russia and Ukraine, although it is likely to put Kiev and its European NATO allies on the back foot, Czech President Petr Pavel said.

Trump has repeatedly said he would end the more than two-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” if he were reinstated to the White House. He has not disclosed how he hopes to quickly end Europe’s biggest land war since World War II.

“I don’t think he’s realistic, but at the same time I think he’s going to make an effort to end this war and reach an agreement with President (Vladimir) Putin,” said Pavel, a retired general and former president. of the NATO military committee.

“Most likely it will not be in our and Ukraine’s interest to have such an agreement,” Pavel said at the IISS Defense Summit in Prague on Friday.

Advisers to the president-elect have signaled that a future deal could cede Russian-held parts of Ukraine to Moscow, delaying Kiev’s NATO membership for at least two decades and giving Europe long-term responsibility for protecting the continent’s eastern flank. and hundreds of miles of demilitarized territory, Pavel said.

The president-elect has not yet decided how to become the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin at the same negotiating table, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week.

The soon-to-be 47th president said in the run-up to the election that he has a “very specific plan on how to stop Ukraine and Russia” but has shied away from providing any details on the road map to ending the conflict. The Kremlin said it was not aware of any possible plans by Trump, but that Putin was “open to constructive dialogue”.

“Let’s wait and see what happens in January,” the Kremlin spokesman said Dmitry Peskov he told reporters on Wednesday.

One idea floated among officials in Trump’s camp could be for Ukraine to commit to not joining NATO for at least 20 years while Washington continues to send weapons, diary reported, citing three people close to Trump and echoing Pavel’s remarks.

The conflict would also become frozen, with Russia retaining control of about a fifth of Ukraine and a demilitarized zone snaking through the country, presumably overseen by European forces.

“We can do training and other support, but the barrel of the gun will be European,” said a member of Trump’s team. diary. “We are not sending American men and women to support peace in Ukraine. And we don’t pay for it. Get the Poles, Germans, British and French to do it’.

“Trump kept saying he could solve the problem in one day,” the former said nato official Edward Hunter Christie. “Nobody believes it’s possible – that’s rhetoric,” he previously said Newsweek. But there are fears that Trump could cut a deal with Putin that would put Ukraine and its other allies in “huge trouble,” he added.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedevwho remains a prominent and demanding figure in Russian politics, said the Republican he was a “businessman to the core”, describing this as a “quality that comes in handy”.

Anxieties ran high for Kiev and many of Ukraine’s supporters ahead of the election, fearing what Trump’s return to power could mean for Ukrainian forces at a time in the war when they are steadily losing ground to Russia in the east.

Kiev depends heavily on its supporters for military supplies. Trump has said he may end military aid to Ukraine if re-elected.

Hungarian Prime Minister and Trump ally in Europe Viktor Orbán said Friday that “the Americans will withdraw from this war.” European officials insist continental NATO states must and want to step up defense spending, but it is unclear whether Europe could keep Kiev fed without US input.

NATO members should spend about 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. However, this is not mandatory and several countries have not crossed this threshold, although new efforts in recent years have seen many achieve the goal.

Regardless of victory in the presidential race, Pavel said, European NATO nations will always need to do more to strengthen their own defenses. “With President Trump, we’ll probably have to do it faster,” Pavel added

Trump hailed his “very good relationship” with the Russian president, while insisting he enjoys good communication with Ukrainian leader Zelensky.

Visiting Budapest on Thursday, Zelensky said he believed Trump “really wants a quick decision” to end the war, but that “doesn’t mean it’s going to happen that way.”